Makes purchasing and reselling tickets simple. Option to print tickets or use the digital, in-app barcode version. Stores tickets purchased from other vendors. Lets you transfer tickets to another person.

Cons

A few mobile app limitations. No integrated map. Can't search by venue.

Bottom Line

SeatGeek offers you an excellent way to buy, sell, and transfer tickets wherever you have an internet connection, but it lacks the VIP packages offered by Ticketmaster.

It's extremely convenient to Netflix and chill from the comfort of your home, but every now and then the urge arises for entertainment that isn't available from your couch. In those moments, SeatGeek is invaluable. This website and mobile app offers a search engine that scours dozens of ticket sites and presents the results in one place. Even better, SeatGeek offers plenty of flexibility by letting you transfer tickets to other people or even sell them outright. All in all, SeatGeek is a feature-packed ticketing service that proves useful when you're in the mood for high-profile entertainment. Ticketmaster, however, packs a more powerful ticket-buying punch.

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The SeatGeek Basics

SeatGeek built its name in the ticket reseller market, but recently the company's been making moves in the primary ticket-seller space. The browser-based SeatGeek puts local events at the forefront. As your computer loads the homepage, SeatGeek detects your location and displays a panel-based grid that's chock-full of entertainment. My SeatGeek homepage has its events listing broken into seven categories—Popular Events, Top Artists, Popular This Weekend, Top Teams, Concerts, Top Broadway Shows, and Comedy—but yours may vary. I like that the event listings have starting prices listed in their panels, so you can see at glance how much money you may potentially blow on, say, a Drake and Migos show at Madison Square Garden. Ticketmaster, on the other hand, requires you to initiate the ticket-buying process to see the prices.

Naturally, you can search for events by cruising categories, selecting a new city, or keying a term into SeatGeek's integrated search box. If you want to see upcoming events happening within a certain time frame, SeatGeek lets you filter by date, too. You cannot, however, search by venue. That's a useful feature that Ticketmaster boasts. If you have a favorite, preferred venue, Ticketmaster is good way to stay on top of things.

Entertainment Tonight

Unlike the more community-focused Eventbrite, SeatGeek plays to people who want to see large, marquee events. You can find tickets for theater (The Book of Mormon, Hamilton), music (Elton John, Ed Sheeran), comedy (Bill Burr, Trevor Noah), and sporting events (WWE, New York Yankees). In fact, SeatGeek struck a deal with the Dallas Cowboys to serve as the team's primary ticket office (the 'Boys also bought a minority stake in the company). This means that if you're a fan of America's Team, you pay standard ticket prices instead of the reseller prices you'll find elsewhere. You won't, however, find smaller happenings, such as A Decadent Evening of Chocolate and Cocktails, Pop Up Dinner NYC, and New York Cocktail Expo—events I discovered using Eventbrite.

Selecting an event, such as Bill Burr with New York Comedy Festival, takes you to a page on which you can view the venue address, date, and seating arrangement. Unfortunately, SeatGeek's event listings lack integration with mapping apps, so you must fire up your favorite map app to see exactly where a venue is located. Songkick, a music-focused ticketing app, uses an embedded Google Map for location information.

In addition, if you create a SeatGeek account, you can save items of interest to your account by clicking the Track icon. Like Songkick, SeatGeek notifies you when relevant shows are announced or there's a drop in ticket prices for an event you wish to attend. Tracked artists also supply SeatGeek with the information it needs to recommend similar shows in your area. You can also connect SeatGeek to your Facebook, Last.fm, and Spotify accounts, so that any artists you favorite in those services will be automatically tracked. Track also acts as a bookmark; you can quickly see a list of tracked events by clicking your account name and then clicking Tracked.

In anice touch, SeatGeek lets you import PDF e-tickets purchased from other vendors, so the service can act as your one-stop ticketing hub.

Purchasing (and Reselling) Tickets

The ticket purchasing process requires that you select an event date and seat (where applicable),and then input your name, email address, and credit/debit card information. Unlike Eventbrite, SeatGeek doesn't give you a 15-minute time frame to buy the ticket before losing it. In fact, there's no countdown clock at all.

SeatGeek itself sells tickets, though the company gives you the option to purchase from Fanxchange, TicketNetwork, and other vendors from within SeatGeek's confines. Songkick, on the other hand, shuttles you to Ticketmaster or StubHub to complete the transaction.

SeatGeek keeps a record of all your purchases, neatly dividing them into past and upcoming events. And, like StubHub and Ticketmaster, SeatGeek lets you transfer ticket purchases to other people. This is extremely handy for when you buy tickets for multiple people and don't want to wait for them in outside or in the lobby. After I purchased two tickets to see a live Jalen & Jacoby taping, I transferred my homie Eric his ticket so I could go inside and have a good time at the bar while he was in transit.

Like StubHub and Ticketmaster, SeatGeek offers a ticket reseller service. All you need to do is upload a ticket in PDF form and fill out some details, including pricing. Listing a ticket is free, but SeatGeek takes a 10 percent cut when a ticket is sold.

Like Ticketmaster, SeatGeek urges you to resell at a decent price. When you list a ticket, SeatGeek suggests a price based on the market price and other related deals. If you decide to roll with the suggested price, SeatGeek gives your listing a better Deal Score that causes it to be one of the first listings that potential buyers see.

Unfortunately, you can only resell tickets using the browser-based SeatGeek or the iOS app. Android is not supported. Ticketmaster, on the other hand, lets you sell tickets using either its Android or iOS app.

SeatGeek's Mobile Apps

SeatGeek has mobile apps available for the Android and iOS platforms that let you purchase tickets when you're away from your PC. I mainly tested SeatGeek on my Google Pixel XL smartphone, but I spent a bit of time with the iPhone version, too. The apps are very similar to each other in terms of design, and both offer the browser-based version's many useful features (though the Android version curiously lacks the reseller feature). That said, the mobile apps differ from the web version in small ways.

For example, the mobile apps let you use your phone as a barcode-based e-ticket instead of requiring you to download a PDF ticket or physically print it out—that's very convenient. The mobile apps also lack a cool feature found in the browser version: the ability to let users store PDF tickets purchased from other vendors.

Desperately Seating Susan

SeatGeek is an extremely well-designed service, both on the web and mobile fronts. I've used it multiple times to take in shows, and never had an issue reselling tickets or transferring tickets to friends. If not for a few niggles—mostly related to mobile app features—SeatGeek would ride high as my favorite e-ticketing service. However, Ticketmaster offers a slightly better all-around ticket-buying experience and reigns as the Editors' Choice.

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About the Author

For more than a decade, Jeffrey L. Wilson has penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including 1UP, 2D-X, The Cask, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. He now brings his knowledge and skillset to PCMag as Senior Analyst.
When he isn't staring at a monitor (or two) and churning out web... See Full Bio

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